The Blood beneath the Skin
by and.why.the.hell.not
Summary: John is terrified when he gets a call from his dying sister Harry. After the police finds her body it turns out that she was murdered and John finds out that it was a figure of his own past who is now hunting him down - his father. He tries to keep some dark secrets from Sherlock who starts investigating the case. Loads of friendship, comfort, trust and hurt plus concerned Sherlock
1. Chapter 1

**The Blood beneath the Skin**

"Do you want some tea?" John asks standing up and going to the kitchen. He does not get an answer thou and turns around to peer into the living room once again. Sherlock is sitting on the couch with both hands put together in front of his face and closed eyes. _Great he is in his mind palace again_ John thinks and returns to the kitchen. When the water boils he makes two cups of tea – Sherlock always nags at him when he does only think of himself despite the fact that John could not possibly know when Sherlock is going to be responsive again. He puts both cups on the salver and enters the living room when Sherlock suddenly jumps up lifts his hands to the ceiling and shouts

"Of course! Why didn´t I think about that sooner. It´s so obvious!" John winces and nearly drops the salver but can catch himself before ruining the carpet.

"Sherlock what the..." he exclaims but Sherlock is already taking out his phone to text Lestrade and ignores John completely. John sets down the tea and glimpses over Sherlock´s shoulder on the phone.

 **If daughter is allergic to peanuts then arrest daughter ~SH**

"So you have solved the murder from last week?" he asks hoping that Sherlock would answer him this time.

"Of course I did! The police could have come to me sooner but they had to try for themselves to figure out that they are too stupid to solve a case like this without me." Sherlock answers and sits down again. _Charming_ John thinks to himself. _No wonder that he is so popular in Scotland Yard._ Sherlock´s gaze meets the salver on the table and he takes his cup. He sips at it and then looks up at John who had sat down and is now taking his own cup of tea in his hands.

"Are there any interesting cases on the website?" he asks and John looks at him. His calm and relaxed face drops and he grimaces at Sherlock.

"Please don´t say that you are already bored" he says putting down the cup without drinking the tea.

"John, as I told you many times before, my brain needs something to do or it will crash and you do not want to see that. I need a case, a pursuit, something to do because if it does not get something interesting to focus on it will do everything at once" Sherlock supports his explanation by holding two fingers of each hand to his temples and then depicts an explosion by lifting his hands up and simultaneously doing a crashing sound.

"Okay okay" John gives up – there is nothing else he can do in a discussion with Sherlock. He stands up leaving his tea on the table and approaches his laptop on the desk when his phone rings. He stops in his movement and fishes his phone out of his pocket.

"John Watson" he says after accepting the call and lifting the phone to his ear.

"John" comes a whistle out of the speakers. It sounds forced and rough as if the person is in pain and a rattling breathing can be heard which is way to fast.

"Harry?...Harry is that you?" John asks in confusion and Sherlock looks up from his tea to find out what was going on.

"John, I´m so sorry" the silent voice of Harry sounds in his ear. She speaks so quietly and it sounds as if she was too tired to talk. He feels fear rising inside him. Sherlock sees John´s eyes widen and knows that something had happened. John normally does not talk much to his sister but from time to time they were talking on the phone. He had heard John talk to her before – she calls him often when she is drunk – but this time his reaction is different. He looks shocked and even afraid of what is happening right now.

"Harry where are you? I am going to get you." John tries to stay calm but his voice trembles and starts shivering slightly.

"John...I´m tired" Harry´s voice breakes and the breathing gets lower and lower. John turns around and clutches at his phone.

"NO! Stay awake Harry! You have to tell me where you are! Don´t do this to me. I need you to tell me!" John covers his eyes with his left hand and tears are streaming down his cheeks. Sherlock puts his cup on the table and stands up. He has never seen John like this before and he does not like it. Sherlock is not able to hear Harry but by John´s reaction he can tell that she is not in a good state.

"HARRY!...Damn it...Harry talk to me!...HARRY!" The breathing on the other end stops and there is absolute silence on the other line. John drops the phone on the floor. He covers his face with both hands and tears are streaming off his face and drip on the carpet, darkening the colour where they hit the fabric. Sherlock does not know how to react. He can tell that Harry is dead and is overwhelmed by concern for his friend. He approaches John slowly but does not know what to do. Sherlock lifts his hand and lays it on John´s shoulder. John lowers his hands and looks at Sherlock, eyes red and terribly sad. He looks at Sherlock and without warning wraps his arms around him and pressing his face into Sherlock´s chest. Sherlock eyes widen – he had not seen that coming. At first he is confused by the sudden movement and freezes in his actions but then he puts his arm over John´s shoulders and lies his chin on John´s head. Sherlock does not do emotions very well but at this moment he will at least try to deal with it for John´s sake.

"It´s okay" he says to comfort John.

"No it´s not okay. She´s...dead. My little sister is dead...we have to find her" John says into Sherlock´s chest.

"We will" Sherlock answers and adds "I promise."


	2. Chapter 2

Hours later Sherlock and John are still sitting in Lestrade´s office while literally the whole police department is searching for a body. John hasn´t said a thing on the way to the station and when Sherlock looks at him he can see that John does not really comprehend what is going on around him. Sherlock had told Lestrade what had happened and after that everybody was in action. Only him and John were still here. Of course John would have wanted to go with them to search for his sister but the chances that he would be the one to find her in this big city are about zero and here they would be the first to hear about it when they find something. John´s eyes have this blank stare and Sherlock does not like it at all. When Lestrade enters the office John jumps up and expects the worse.  
"Did you find anything?" This is the first time after their...hug...that Sherlock hears John´s voice. It is raw and does not really sound like John. Lestrade lowers his gaze to the ground and shakes his head.

"Sorry, John. My men are doing their best but this is a big city and we don´t have any idea where to start searching. Can you tell me where you saw her the last time?" John´s facial expression even worsened if this was even possible and Sherlock could see tears glistening in the corner of his eyes.

"We...we haven´t seen each other in a long time...god...it was years ago..." John´s voice breaks and he leans forward covering his face with his hands.

"I´m sorry, John but I need to..."

"Get out" Sherlock says without averting his eyes from John´s shrunken figure.

"What?" Lestrade is confused. Donovan opens the door. "Sir, the search teams need further directions. We can´t just search the whole city..."

"GET OUT!" Now Sherlock stares directly at the two officers and Donovan´s eyes widen in shock when Lestrade actually obeys the freak´s order and leaves his own office to let the both alone.

Sherlock focusses on John again who is still sunken in without saying a thing.

"John?" Sherlock tries to sound as calm and soothing as possible to cover that he himself is worried, not as much about Harry but about his friend.

"I should have been there for her, Sherlock...last time I saw her she was drunk and just got dumped by her friend...she blamed me for her problems...maybe she was right" John looks up at Sherlock, eyes red and his brows furrowed in confusion and pain.

"John, you are the most caring and empathic person I happen to know. I am certain you gave your best to help Harry but sometimes a person is just too deep into their sorrow that they just entangle everybody else in it, too"

"But maybe I could have helped her anyway. If I would have been with her she might still be alive" That´s enough for Sherlock. John blaming himself for what happened is just not right. He stands up from the chair he had been sitting on and kneels in front of John, looking up to him with deep concern in his eyes.

"Listen to me, we can´t change what happened. We can only decide what we are going to do in the future. Either you drown yourself in guilt, which I think you have no reason to feel at all because you couldn´t have known that this would happen, or you give justice to whoever really is to blame for it." John indeed calms down a little bit and then nods.

"Good. So, did you notice anything in the background when you were on the phone. I don´t want you to concentrate on what you heard from Harry. Just focus on everything else. Maybe you heard something, like the bell of a church or the announcement in a train station..."

"Train..." John spoke so quietly that Sherlock can´t decide if he really said somehting at all.

"What?"

"Train, I heard a train." Sherlock never felt happier to hear John´s voice gain power.

"Good, that´s good. Anything else about the train? Was it the rattling and squeaking of the usual train? Or maybe something more hollow like the underground trains?"

"Neither. It didn´t sound like a modern train. More like an old carrier. With many wagons, creaking with every seam of the railway. That´s everything I can remember."

"That´s great, John. This will make the search a lot easier. These old wagons are not used very often anymore. Stay put, I´ll go tell Lestrade and come back as soon as possible."

John just nodded. Sherlock left the room and John waited. _Maybe he is right. Maybe I could have done nothing to safe her. But I can find who is responsible. But maybe it is too little too late._ John looks through the window into the conference room where Sherlock is briefing Lestrade and a pissed off Donovan. _What would I do without this madman? I would have probably ended up like Harry one day..._

Only an hour later Lestrade swings the door open causing Sherlock and John to look up.

"We found her."

"Where?" Sherlock and John ask simultaneously.

"In an abandoned warehouse directly next to an old but still used railway"

On the drive to the crime scene there were no words spoken but when Lestrade stops the car in front of a very old and rusty warehouse in the middle of nowhere he raises his voice to address John.

"Are you sure, you want to come with us? We still don´t know what we are going to find in there. We just got the dispatch that there was a female body in there but we got no further information about..."

"I´m coming with you" was John´s response before Lestrade could finish.

"Fine." Lestrade says looking at Sherlock who nods. _I´ll take care of him, don´t worry._

They climb out of the car and make their way to the warehouse. It really was exactly next to an old railway which was overgrown by grass and only some crushed blades of grass showed that it was still in use. The warehouse itself was no real warehouse because it had no doors and the one side wall that was headed to the rails was missing. It looks more like a hangar where they used to load the cargo on the wagons.

They walk over the rails and turn around the corner of the hangar to have a look inside. It is nearly empty, only a few flour bags and sacks of potatoes are lying around. In one corner is some kind of crane which could be used to fill a freight carrier with whatever you wanted to transport. In front of this crane stands an officer who waves them to come over there. While Lestrade and Donovan follow this request directly John looses speed on his way to the officer knowing what he would find behind that crane. Sherlock notices the change in John´s behaviour and walks besides him to support his friend. John is extremely grateful that Sherlock is there with him. They see how Donovan and the DI look around the crane and then look at John truly concerned for the former soldier. Sherlock expects the worst when even Donovan looks shocked and sees it as confirmed when Lestrade approaches them wide eyed.

"John, you don´t have to see that." Lestrade stops directly in front of John and hold his hands in front of him.

"Let us take this one, okay? Go home, it will give you nothing to see her like this"

But John does not want to go home. He tries to see over Lestrades shoulder and when he does not see anything he tries to go around the DI. But Lestrade catches him by the arm.

"Please John, don´t do this to yourself." John watches Sherlock looking around the corner where Harry is somewhere lying in the durt. His eyes widen and he lifts his gaze to look at John. He shakes his head. _Why is nobody letting me to my sister? What have they done to her? I´m totally gonna kill somebody for this!_ John tries to walk past Lestrade but he still holds him back. In a rage John turns around a screams at him.

"LET ME TO MY SISTER!" John uses all his energy to rip his arm away from the DI, leaving the Detective stumbling and nearly falling to he ground. John quickly walks over to the crane.

"John" Sherlock says quietly but he does not try to stop the former soldier. John slows down a little bit but he needs to see what had happened. He turns around the crane and stops breathing.

In the corner behind the rusty old machine lies a figure on the ground, half covered by a plastic sheet that had been used to hide the body. She does not look like the Harry he had last time seen years ago but it is her. The same black curly hair, the same lips and the same nose. All inherited by her mother. Even as a child she had looked exactly like her. But everything else is changed. Her eyes are open and lost all of their liveliness. They are deeply sunken in into her scull as if she had been ill for a very long time. Her lips are dry and rough, her teeth are yellow and her formerly clean and beautiful skin is broken open and scarred all over her face. Even from the distance John can see the several red lined dots all over her arms where she had been pushing the needle in to get high. He also notices the bruises covering her whole body and even leaving the pattern of big hands grabbing her arms. But that was not even the worst. Harry is lying with her head pointing to John so he can see the full extent of a really nasty scull fracture where some monster had smashed her brains in. Her scull is open and blood is covering the ground all around her sad figure.

All of that John notices in the fraction of a second and it hits him, it hits him really hard.

"John?" John does not notice Sherlock behind him and he does not hear what he is saying either. He feels numb and he can´t take his eyes away from the wounded shape on the ground, dumped like trash. Tears stream down his face and he doesn´t even care that Donovan and Lestrade appear and talk to the other officer to guide him away from the scene. John sinks down on his knees and reaches for a strand of hair lying over Harry´s face. He gently wipes it away. _I´m so sorry Harry. I should have been there for you when I still had the chance to make things right. This is all my fault._

"John!" This time Sherlock sounds even more concerned than before but John still does not react.

"JOHN!" He leans down to John to slightly shake him and finally John looks up at him and recognizes him.

"John, you have to breathe!" John was so taken aback by his sisters appearance that he simply forgot to breath. Now that Sherlock reminded him of the need of oxygen, he feels a deep pain in his chest and the first breath he tries to take is raspy and unpleasantly painful.

"That´s it. Deep breaths. Go on." Sherlock animates him and the next breath is deeper and John feels the numbness slowly going away. He wants to turn around to Harry again but Sherlock simply kneels down in front of him and holds him by the shoulders.

"No don´t do that. I need you to calm down and breath right now." John has not enough power to break away from his friend so he concentrates on his breathing. One, two, three deep breaths and he finally realizes that he had been kneeling on the ground for quite a while before Sherlock had talked to him. He must have been close to unconsciousness when his friend had forced him to breath. After just breathing for some minutes Sherlock lifts him to his feet and leads him away from the hangar into a bright lighted park. They sit on a bench in the sun and just watch the other people in the park. Someone throws a ball for his dog, a girl is riding a bike and a mother is playing hide and seek with her two children. John feels a lot better than before despite the fact that he can´t get rid of the sight of Harry lying on the ground covered in her own blood. But he is with his best friend and that gives him a lot of strength. He looks to his left to see the face of the great Sherlock Holmes looking into the distance. The look of deep concern for John never left his eyes. And John starts to wonder. _If it wasn´t for him I would have died a long time ago. He is the best friend I ever had. Did I ever thank him for that?_

"Sherlock?"

"Yeah" Sherlock turns his face to look at John, quickly checking his breathing and relaxing when everything seemed okay.

"Thank you" Sherlock furrows his brows.

"You don´t need to..."

"Yes, I do. You helped me a lot in there" John looks down on his hands, embarrassed about what had happened

"Well, you would have done the same thing for me. Besides, what would I have done without my angry little roommate? My cases wouldn´t be half as interesting without my army doctor sidekick "

"Oh, shut up" John says with a smile on his face.

"Just saying" Sherlock responds, happy to see his friend smile the first time today.

To be continued...

I know it took a while but finally I found the time to write a new chapter. Hope you enjoy it:D


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